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LETTER 



CITIZENS OF NEWMJinTORT, MASS., 



MR. WE 15 STICK. 



IN RELATION TO 



$is Speed) faliumo in tlje Senate of tlje United States 



On tlie nil March, 1850, 



MR. WEBSTER'S REPLY 



W VSHINGTON: 

PUINTEll BY G I D E O M AND C O , 



1850. 



r 



LETTER 



CITIZENS OF NEWBURYPORT, MASS., 



MR. WEBSTER, 



IN RELATION TO 



$t0 Spctfl) Mirmir in % Smctte of % Kniteb States 



On the 7th March, 1850, 



MR. WEBSTER'S REPLY, 






WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY GIDEON AND CO. 

1850. 



LETTER OF CITIZENS OF NEWBURYPORT. 



To THE HONORABLE DaNIEL WEBSTER. 

Sir : We address you to make known the satisfaction we have derived from 
the perusal of the speech recently delivered by you in the Senate of the United 
States, on the great topic of the day. 

We admire its manly temper, the liberal and conciliatory sentiments it ex- 
presses; and the unanswerable power of analysis and exposition with which it 
develops and maintains the true principles of the Constitution. 

We honor, especially, the courageous patriotism which pervades it, recalling 
to a due sense of their constitutional obligations the North as well as the South. 

We therefore beg you to accept our heartfelt thanks for the pre-eminent ser- 
vice you have now again performed, towards preserving and strengthening out- 
National Union. 

We have the honor to subscribe ourselves, with pride and pleasure, your 
friends and constituents. 

Newburyport, April 8, 1850. 



Edward S. Rand, 
W. B. Banister, 
John Porter, 
Henry Johnson, 
Francis Todd, 
Chas. H. Balch, 
Jos. Johnson, 
Edward Toppan, 
JNath. Horton, 
Micajah Lunt, 
Eben. Stone, 
Jno. Andrews, 
John Wood, 
Robt. Bayley, 
Robt. Bayley, jr., 
Henry Frothingham, 
W. W. Eells, 
Dennis Condry, 
Joseph S. Pike, 
Nath. Smith, 
Henry Bartlet, 
Tristram Chase, 
Wm. Graves, jr., 
Joseph A. Frothingham, 



Gyles P. Stone, 
Moses Hale, 
Daniel Dodge, 
William J. Dodo-e, jr 
Wm. E. Currier, ' 
John Osgood, 
Ralph C. Huse, 
Mark Symons, 
Thomas Huse, 
Edmund Bartlet, jr., 
John Caldwell, 
Robt. E. Mosely, 
Henry C. Perkins, 
Oliver M. Akermnn, 
Edward T. Hardy, 
Edwin Currier, 
W. Bradstreet, 
R. Stone, 
Chas. M. Hodge, 
C. French, 
Samuel Brandon, 
C. S. Williams, 
Wm. Hevvey, 
Daniel Daggett, 



Samuel Knapp, 
David Hale, 
Jesse Thurlow, 
W. E. Buntin, 
Isaac Hale, 
Geo. W. Hale, 
John Atkinson, 
F. W. Smith, 
W. H. Spiller, 
A. W. Miltimore. 
Michael Titcomb, 
Edward W. Lunt, 
Moody Pearson, 
William M. Pearson, 
Henry Toppan, 
Isaac H. Boardman, 
Daniel Dana, 
Jos. Goodhue, 
Daniel Colman, 
Charles Noyes, 
Joseph Newell, 
Jacob W. Lunt, 
Richard Adams, 
Nathan B. Blake, 



Stephen W. Marston, 
Geo. Greenleaf, 
Amos Tappan, 
Win. H. Brewster, 
A i.i ram. Williams, 
Benjamin P. Dow, 
"VVni. Burke, 
L. L. Condry, 
Amos Wood, 
Nath. S. Osgood, 
John N. Cushing, 
William Forks, 

E. R. Walker, 
W. B. Boardman, 
Fred Knight, 
Joseph F. Carr, 
Enoch Pierce, 
Charles H. Coffin, 
Thomas Davis, 
Nathan Poor, 
William W.Caldwell, 
James W. Cheney, 
Greenleaf Dodge, 
Moses Davenport, 
Albert Wood, 
Henry W. Kinsman, 
Philip H. Blumpey, 
Philip Johnson, 
John Merrill, 

Jos. B. Morss, 
Nathaniel Noyes, 
Wm. Balch, 
Thos. Bun tin, 
Enoch Huse, 
Geo. Kilborn, 
Moses Merrill, 
Eleazer Johnson, jr., 
John Huse, 
Samuel Fenimore, 
Nehemiah Flanders, 
John Balch, 
Edward Burrill, 

F. Curl is, 
R. Fowler, 

James W. Fenimore, 
Chester A. Greenleaf, 
Dean Robinson, 
John E. Emerson, 
Washington Adams, 
Ezra Lunt, 
T. L. Rundlett, 
A. D. Brown, 
W. C. Williams, 



Moses B. Wheeler, 
Sam'l Boardman, 
Anthony S. Jones, 
ParkerRobert, 
Wm. Cushing, 
Th. Perkins, 
John L. Knight, 
James Cary, 
Enoch G. Currier, 
John N. Pike, 
Wm. H. Lunt, 
Samuel Currier. 
Eben Sumner, 
F. J. Coffin, ' 
Albeit Currier. 
John Bayley, 
Weymouth Lydston, 
Nathaniel T. Lucy, 
Charles W. Lucy, 
F. W. Burnham, 
jr., John G. Tilton, 
Rufus Smith, 
Thomas Griffith, 
N. G. Bassett, 
George T. Granger, 
Foster Smith, 
John Burrill, 
W. H. Sargent, 
Moses D. Randall, 
Samuel Stevens, jr., 
Sam'l Stevens, 
Samuel Mulliken, 
Daniel G. Tilton, 
John Harrod, 
Horace Bickford. 
Joseph T. Pike, 
William Davis, 
Joseph Akerman, 
T. Sweetser, 
George Donnell, 
Charles Knapp, 
Joseph Plummer, 
Oliver Spaulding, 
J. J. Knapp, 
W. Brown, 
Stevens Darkhem, 
John Tyler, 
Wm. Shaw, 
Saml. S. Blake, 
Henry P. Toppan, 
Dean R. Martin, 
M. M. Ress, 
Charles Currier. 



Daniel H or ton, 
Hiram Wood, 
Charles L. Drown. 
John Moore, 
William Moulton, 
R. I. Curtis, 
C. E. Dow, 
George Lunt, jr., 
Newman Brown, 
Edwin S> evens. 
Alfred W. Lord, 
Thomas H. Lord. 
Charles P. Ballou. 
Geo. W. Campbell. 
S. Coker, 

B. Harrod, 
Dan. Balch, 

Robt. Robinson, jr., 
Nathan Follansbee, 
Michael Wormsted. 
M. P. Case, 
Wm. Pritchard, 
Nicholas Johnson, 
Josiah Bartlett, 
W. H. Wells, 
P. B. Bass, 
Stephen S. Hodge, 
Philip K. Remick, 
Jonathan Coolidge. 
John 0. W. Brown 
Rufus Danforth, 
Hiram Poser, 
F. L. Toppan, 
J. B. Goodwin, 
Moses Pettineale, 
P. S. Cate, 
Amos Pearson, 
.1 . F. Hodgkins, 

C. Hesseltine, 
Chas. S. Pike, 
Aaron P. Sargent, 
Charles Wescott, 
Daniel Lunt, 
Joseph Greenleaf, 
David E. Cutter, 
John Newman, 
Thomas G. Dodge, 
Herbert A. Ingrahair. 
E. M. Read, 
William S. Mills, 
Samuel Hale, 
George D. Thurlow, 
Alfred Hale, 



Dan Smith, 
Wm. Graves, 
Moses Brown, jr , 
Ebin Stedman, 
Saml. March, 
Tho. H. Cutter, 
David J. Merrill, 
M. J. Hale, 
J. D. Kimball, 
Wm. J. Hodge, 
John Bailey, jr., 
Isaac Pearson, 
John G. Gurney, 
J. B. Drown, 
Joseph Tappan, jr., 
Philip R. Piper,' 
Jos. B. Creasey, 
Thos. Patten, jr., 
James Caldwell, 
Josiah Bradlee, 
Daniel Knight, 
John Halliday, 
John Teel, 
Geo. Orcany, 
William J. Creasey, 
Gideon E. Leighton, 
Moses Ed. Small, 
W. Aug. Marston, 
Nathl. Hodge, 
Thos. W. Foster, 
Moore Kimball, 
James Alien, 
Rufus Sargent, 
Joseph Williams, 
Frederic W. Donnell, 
Prescott Spalding, 
Nicholas Vamum, 
Chas. P. Merchant, 
Jacob Stickney, jr., 
B. Chase, 
Benj. H. Noyes, 
Nathan Carter, 
Paul Simpson, 
John Goodwin, 
Peter Fenimore, 
John N. Follansbee, 



T. Browbeck, 
William L. Greenball, 
Caleb Stickney, 
George W. Green, 
George Rolfe, 
John Orne, 
Nath!. Currier, 
Samuel B. Tappan, 
H. Y. Crofoot, 
Richard S Spofford. 
Wm. J. Badger, 
C. J. Badger, 
Geo. McMusse, 
Daniel C. Batchelder, 
Edward F. Howard, 
Geo. Fitz, 
Edward S. Lesley, 
Sam Thune, 
Chas. Marstes, 
Edward Bass, 
Joseph Roberts, 
Henry Merrill, jr. 
N. C. Greenough, 
Enoch Stickney, 
Moody A. Thurlo, 
G. E. Byron, 
John Pearson, 
Samuel Pearson, 
W. A. Cheney, 
J. L. Pearson, 
Wm. F. Stan wood, 
Jeremiah Carter, 
John A. Rumson, 
Richard Tenney, 
John Pearson, 
Joseph W. Ballon, 
John B. Nelson, 
Abner Caldwell, 
Stephen Kimball, 
C. W. Davenport, 
Curtis French, 
Moses Emery, 
Moody Lunt, 
George Currier, 
Albert Brookings, 
Charles Smith, 



Joseph F. Howard, 
Stephen Collins, 
H. Kimball, 
Charles D. Wood, 
Samuel H. Rundlet, 
Joseph Janvrin, 
Charles Lunt, 
T. M. Pike, jr., 
Benj. Pearson, 
Emery Coffin, 
Anson W. Bayley, 
John Q,. Adams, 
Anthony Davenport, 
Charles W. Hale, 
James Webster, 
David E. Cary, 
Joseph Brooking, 
Benj'n Saunders, 
Wm. Porter, jr., 
J. F. Stickney, 
Eben. Wheelwright, 
Samuel F. Pike, 
Nath'l Hills, 
Josiah Little, 
John Atkinson, 
Moses Sargent, 
Henry Rolf, 
Eliphalet Emery," 
William Nichols, 
Joseph Bartlet, 
Edwin P. Grosvenor, 
John Currier, jr., 
Wm. Goodwin, 
John Currier, 
David M. Coffin, 
Paul Lunt, 
Wm. C. Merrill, 
James Bachelder, 
Moses A. Currier, 
James Merroud, 
Ezekiel Choate, 
True Choate, 
Wm. Currier, 
Paul Lunt, jr., 
Wm. T. Colman, 



REPLY OF MR. WEBSTER. 



Washington, May 15, 1850. 
Gentlemen: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter, of the Sth of April, approving the sentiments of my 
speech, delivered in the Senate on the 7th of March last. As con- % 
siderable differences of opinion prevail, in Massachusetts, on the 



subject of that speech, it is grateful to receive, in a letter so re- 
spectably and numerously signed, opinions so decidedly concur- J^ ««\ 
ring with my own. 

Circumstances have occurred, within the last twenty years, to 
create a new degree of feeling, at the North, on the subject of 
slavery; and from being considered, as it was at the adoption of 
the Constitution, mainly as a political question, it has come to be 
regarded, with unusual warmth, as a question of religion and 
humanity. It is obvious enough, that the Government of the 
United States has no control over slavery, as it exists in the 
several States. Its proper jurisdiction, in this respect, is con- 
fined to its own Territories, except so far as it is its duty to see 
that that part of the Constitution, which respects the surrender 
of fugitive .-laves, be carried fairly and honestly into execution. 

The Constitution of the United States, in the 2d section of the 
4th article, declares: 

"A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who 
shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, en demand of the 
executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be re- 
moved to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

" No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the 
party to whom such service or labor may be due." 

This provision of the Constitution seems to have met with little 
exception or opposition, or none at all, so far as I know, in Mas- 
sachusetts. Every body seems to have regarded it as necessary 
and proper. The members of the convention of that State for 
adopting the Constitution were particularly jealous of every article 






J«* 



8 

and section, which might in any degree entrench on personal 
liberty. Every page of their debates evinces this spirit. And 
yet I do not remember, that any one of them found the least fault 
with this provision. The opponents and deriders of the Consti- 
tution, of this day, have sharper eyes in discerning dangers to 
liberty, than General Thompson, Holder Slocum, and Major Nason 
had, in 1788; to say nothing of John Hancock, Samuel Adams, 
and othersjk and among them the very eminent men who were 
delegates in that Convention from Newburyport: Rufus King, 
T~ ^T* Benjamin Greenleaf, Theophilus Parsons, and Jonathan Tilcomb. 
Tlr^ The latter clause, quoted above, it may be worth while to re- 
mark, was borrowed, in substance, from the celebrated Ordinance 
of 1787, which was drawn up by that great man of your own coun- 
ty, and a contemporary of your fathers, Nathan Dane. 

Mr. Dane had very venerable New England authority for the 
insertion of this provision in the ordinance which he prepared. 

In the year 1643 there was formed a confederation between the 
four New England colonies, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Con- 
necticut, and New Haven; and in the 8th article of that confed- 
eration it is stipulated as follows, viz : 

" It is also agreed, that if any servant run away from his mas- 
ter into any other of these confederated jurisdictions, that, in such 
cases, upon the certificate of one magistrate in the jurisdiction out 
of which the said servant fled, or upon other due proof, the said 
servant shall be delivered, either to his master, or any other that 
pursues, and brings such certificate or proof." And in the "Ar- 
ticles of Agreement," entered into in 1650, between the New 
England Colonies and "the delegates of Peter Stuyvesant, Gov- 
ernor of New Netherland," it was stipulated that "the same way 
and course" concerning fugitives should be observed between the 
English Colonies and New Netherland, as had been established 
in the "Articles of Confederation," between the English Colonies 
themselves. 

On the 12th of February, 1793, under the administration of 
Gen. Washington, Congress passed an act for carrying into effect 



both these clauses of the Constitution. It is entitled, u An act 
respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the 
service of their masters.'''' 

The first two sections of this law provide for the case of fugitives 
from justice; and they declare, that whenever the executive authori- 
ty of any State, or Territory, shall demand any person as a fugitive 
from justice, of the executive authority of any State or Territory 
to which such person shall have fled, and shall produce the copy 
of an indictment, or an affidavit made before a magistrate, charg- 
ing the person, so demanded, with having committed treason, 
felony, or other crime, certified as authentic by the governor or 
chief magistrate of the State or Territory from whence the per- 
son so charged fled, it shall be the duty of the executive authori- 
ty of the State or Territory to which such person shall have fled, 
to cause him or her to be arrested or secured, and notice of the 
arrest to be given to the executive authority making such de- 
mand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the 
fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent 
when he shall appear: but if no such agent shall appear within six 
months, the prisoner may be discharged; and all costs or ex- 
penses, incurred by arresting, securing, or transmitting the fugi- 
tive shall be paid by the State or Territory making the demand. 
And that any agent who shall receive such fugitive into his cus- 
tody, shall be authorized to transport him to the State or Territory 
from which he fled. And any person, rescuing or setting such 
person at liberty, shall, on conviction, be fined not exceeding five 
hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not exceeding one vear. 

The two last sections of the act respect persons held to labor 
in any of the United States or Territories, escaping into any other 
State or Territory; and are in these words: 

[Sect. 3.] Jlnd be it further enacted, That when a person held to labor in any 
of the United States, or in either of the territories on the northwest or south of 
the river Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any other of the said 
States or Territories, the person to whom such labor or service may be due, his 
agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest such fugitive from 
labor, and to take him or her before any judge of the circuit or district courts of 



10 

the United States, residing or being within the State, or before any magistrate 
of a county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be 
made; and upon proof, to the satisfaction of such judge or magistrate, either by 
oral testimony or affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any such 
State or Territory, that the person so seized or arrested doth, under the laws of 
the State or Territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labor to the 
person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or magistrate to 
give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent or attorney, which shall be 
sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from labor to the State or Ter- 
ritory from which he or she fled. 

[Sect. 4.] And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly 
and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, in so seiz- 
ing or arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue such fugitive from such 
claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority 
herein given or declared ; or shall harbor or conceal such person, after notice 
that he or she was a fugitive from labor, as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said 
offences, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars. Which penalty may 
be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any 
court proper to try the same ; saving, moreover, to the person claiming such 
labor or service, his right of action for, or on account of, the said injuries, or 
either of them. [Approved February 12, 1793.] 

It will be observed, that in neither of the two cases, does the 
law provide for the trial of any question, whatever, by jury, in 
the State in which the arrest is made. The fugitive from justice 
is to be delivered, on the production of an indictment, or a regu- 
lar affidavit, charging the party with having committed the crime; 
and the fugitive from service is to be removed to the State from 
which he tied, upon proof, before any authorized magistrate, in 
the State where he may be found, either by witnesses or affidavit, 
that the person claimed doth owe service to the party claiming 
him, under the laws of the State from which he fled. In both 
cases, the proceeding is to be preliminary and summary; in both 
cases, the party is to be removed to the State from which he fled, 
that his liabilities, and his rights, may all be there regularly tried 
and adjudged, by the tribunals of that State, according to its laws. 
In the case of an alleged fugitive from justice, charged with crime, 
it is not to be taken for granted, in the State to which he has fled, that 
he is guilty. Nor in that State is he to be tried, or punished. He is 



11 

only to be remitted for trial, to the place from which he came. 
In the case of the alleged fugitive from service, the courts of the 
State, in which he is arrested, are not to decide that, in fact, or 
in law, he docs owe service to any body. He, too, is only to be 
remitted, for an inquiry into his rights, and their proper adjudi- 
cation, to the State from which he fled; the tribunals of which un- 
derstand its laws, and are in the constant habit of trying the ques- 
tion of slavery or no slavery, on the application of individuals, 
as an ordinary exercise of judicial authority. There is not a 
slave State in the Union, in which independent judicial tribunals 
are not always open, to receive and decide upon petitions, or ap- 
plications for freedom; nor do I know, nor have I heard it alleged, 
that the decisions of these tribunals are not fair and upright. Such 
of them as 1 have seen evince, certainly, these qualities in the 
judges. 

This act of Congress, of the 12th of February, 1793, appears to 
have been well considered, and to have passed with little opposi- 
tion. There is no evidence, known to me, that any body at the 
time regarded any of its provisions as repugnant to religion, 
liberty, the Constitution, or humanity. The two Senators of 
Massachusetts, at that time, were that distinguished legislator 
and patriot of your own county, George Cabot; and that other 
citizen of Massachusetts, among the most eminent of his day for 
talent, purity of character, and every virtue, Caleb Strong. Mr. 
Cabot, indeed, was one of the committee for preparing the bill. 
It appears to have passed the Senate without a division In the 
House of Representatives it was supported by Mr. Goodhue, Mr. 
Gerry, both then, I believe, of your county of Essex, (Mr. Good- 
hue, afterwards, a Senator of the United States, and Mr. Gerry, 
afterwards, Vice President of the United States,) Mr. Ames, Mr. 
Bourne, Mr. Leonard, and Mr. Sedgwick, all members from 
Massachusetts; and was passed by a majority of forty-eight to 
seven; of these seven one being from Virginia, one from Maryland, 
one from New York, and four from the New England States; and 
of these four, one, Mr. Thacher, from Massachusetts. 



12 

I am not aware that there exists any published account of the 
debates on the passage of this act. I have been able to find none. 
I have searched the original files, however ; and I find among 
the papers several propositions for modifications and amendments, 
of various kinds; but none suggesting the propriety of any jury 
trial in the State where the party should be arrested. 

For many years, little or no complaint was made against this 
law, nor was it supposed to be guilty of the offences and enormi- 
ties which have since been charged upon it. It was passed for 
the purpose of complying with a direct and solemn injunction of 
the Constitution; it did no more than was believed to be necessary 
to accomplish that single purpose; and it did that, in a cautious, 
mild manner, to be everywhere conducted according to judicial 
proceedings. 

I confess I see no more objection to the provisions of this law 
than was seen to them by Mr. Cabot and Mr. Strong, Mr. Good- 
hue and Mr. Gerry; and such provisions appear to me, as they 
appeared to them, to be absolutely necessary, if we mean to fulfil 
the duties positively and peremptorily enjoined upon us by the 
Constitution of the country. But since the agitation caused by 
Abolition societies and Abolition presses has, to such extent, ex- 
cited the public mind, these provisions have been rendered obnox- 
ious and odious; unwearied endeavors have been made, and but 
too successfully, to rouse the passions of the people against them; 
and under the cry of universal freedom, and under that other 
cry, that there is a rule for the government of public men and 
private men, which is of superior obligation to the Constitution of 
the country, several of the States have enacted laws to hinder, 
obstruct, and defeat the enactments in this act of Congress, to 
the utmost of their power. The Supreme Court of the United 
States has solemnly decided, that it is lawful for State officers 
and State magistrates to fulfil the duties enjoined upon them 
by the act of Congress of 1793, unless prohibited by State laws; 
and, thereupon, prohibitory State laws have been immediately 
passed, inflicting fine and imprisonment on all State officers and 



13 

magistrates, who shall presume to conform to these requisitions of 
the act of Congress. And these prohibitory and penal laws of 
the States have rendered it imperative on Congress to make 
further and other provisions for carrying into effect the sub- 
stantial intention of the act of 1793. And this is the cause of 
the introduction into the Senate, of a bill on the subject, re- 
cently, by the Committee on the Judiciary. Notwithstanding all 
that may be said by shallow men, ignorant men, and factious 
men — men whose only hope of making, or of keeping, themselves 
conspicuous, is by incessant agitation and the most reckless ef- 
forts to alarm and misguide the people, I know of no persons, in 
or out of Congress, who wish any thing more to be done on the 
subject of fugitives from service, than what is essentially neces- 
sary, in order to meet the requirements of the Constitution, and 
accomplish the objects of the act of Congress of 1793. And what- 
ever enactments I may deem essential to this purpose, I, for one, 
shall certainly support, as I feel bound to do, by my oath of office, 
and by every consideration of duty and propriety. 

As I have already said, the act of Congress of 1793 made no 
provision for any trial by jury, in the State where the arrest of a 
fugitive is made. I haye considered the subject with a conscientious 
desire to provide for such jury trial, if possible, in order to allav ex- 
citement and remove objections. There are many difficulties, 
however, attending any such provision; and a main one, and per- 
haps the only insuperable one, has been created by the States 
themselves, by making it a penal offence in their own officers to ren- 
der any aid in apprehending or securing such fugitives, and abso- 
lutely refusing the use of their jails for keeping them in custody, till 
a jury could be called together, witnesses summoned, and a regular. 
trial be had. It is not too much to say, that to these State laws 
is to be attributed the actual and practical denial of trial by jury 
in these cases. These ill considered State laws it is, which have 
absolutely refused the alleged fugitive, as the case now stands, ,/ 

any trial by jury, by refusing those aids and facilities, without 
which a jury trial is impossible. 

But, at the same time, nothing is more false, than that such 



y 



14 

jury trial is demanded in cases of this kind by the Consti- 
tution, either in its letter or in its spirit. The Constitution de- 
clares, that in all criminal prosecutions there shall be a trial by jury; 
the reclaiming of a fugitive slave is not a criminal prosecution. 
The Constitution also declares, that in suits at common law 
the trial by jury shall be preserved; the reclaiming of a fugitive 
slave is not a suit at the common law; and there is no other 
clause or sentence in the Constitution having the least bearing 
on the subject. 

I have seen a publication by Mr. Horace Mann, a member 
of Congress from Massachusetts, in which I find this sentence. 
Speaking of the bill before the Senate, he says: "This bill de- 
rides the trial by jury secured by the Constitution. A man 
may not lose his horse without a right to this trial, but he may his 
freedom. Mr. Webster speaks for the South and for slavery, not 
for the North and for freedom, when he abandons this right." 
This personal vituperation does not annoy me, but I lament to see 
a public man of Massachusetts, so crude and confused in his legal 

7 apprehensions, and so little acquainted with the Constitution of his 

J country, as these opinions evince Mr. Mann to be. His citation 

\J °f a supposed case, as in point, if it have any analogy to the matter, 

would prove, that if Mr. Mann's horse stray into his neighbor's field, 

^ he cannot lend him back without a previous trial by jury to ascer- 

y tain the right. Truly, if what Mr. Mann says oi' the provisions 

3 of the Constitution, in this publication, be a test of his accuracy 

\ \ in the understanding of that instrument, he would do well not to 

vN seek to protect his peculiar notions under its sanction, but to 

* appeal at once, as others do, to that higher authority w r hich sits 
enthroned above the Constitution and above the law. 
j^Note. I may be permitted to add, in a note, an extract from a private letter from 
one of the most distinguished men in England, dated as late as the 29th of Jan'y. 
"Religion is an excellent thing in every matter except in Politics. There, it 
seems to make men mad ; and I do not know of any People more mad, than the 
Anti-Slavery people on your side of the water, and on ours. Up to the present 
time, I have no doubt they have aggravated every evil they have endeavored to 
mitigate, .or prevent. If you tell one of them what has been the result of his 
ofliciousness, he answers "Liberavi animam meam.'" I may have done wrong, 
but I shall go to Heaven for it. So I believe that your abolitionists have made 



15 

the state of the Slave, and still more that of the free black, much worse than it 
would have been; and probably in many States, that of Virginia for instance, 
have retarded his enfranchisement. But they care little, if they save their own 
souls. On the other hand the Southerners seem as unreasonable — To require 
California to accept Slavery seems both wicked and unjust. "_J- 

In these sentences my friend means, undoubtedly, to ascribe the evils which 
he so truly states, not to true and genuine Religion, not to the Religion of the 
Gospel, but to that fantastical notion of Religion which sometimes possesses 
men's imaginations. The Religion of the New Testament, that Religion which 
is founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ, and his apostles, is as sure a guide 
to duty in politics, as in any other concern of life. 

Gentlemen, I am extending these remarks, I fear, to quite too 
great a length; but there is still one characteristic of this "agi- 
tation" too remarkable to be omitted. 

A member of Congress from Illinois, of talent and rapidly in- 
creasing distinction, (Mr. Bissell,) in a speech delivered in the 
House of Representatives on the 21st day of February, made 
these very true and pertinent remarks: 

"I am not so unmindful of truth as to deny that, in respect to the subject now 
under consideration, some of our Southern friends have good cause to complain. 
But it must have been remarked by all of us, that the Representatives from those 
States which have really been aggrieved in this respect are not those who have 
threatened us with disunion. These threats have come from the Representa- 
tives of States, from which, I venture to say, on an average not one slave escapes 
in five years. Who ever heard of a slave escaping from Mississippi or Alabama? 
Where does he go tor Who helps him away? Certainly not the people of the 
North. Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and Missouri, the only States that are 
really sufferers by the escape of slaves, do not seem to have dreamed of dissolu- 
tion as a remedy ; while the Representatives from a few of the extreme southern 
States, whence slaves could no more escape than from the Island of Cuba, see 
ample cause and imperious necessity for dissolving the Union and establishing 
a "Southern confederacy," in the alleged fact that their slaves are enticed away 
by the citizens of the North." 

Now, the counterpart of the "agitation" presents an equally 
singular and striking aspect, in the fact, that the greatest clamor 
and outcry have been raised against the cruelty and enormity of 
the reclamation of slaves, in quarters where no such reclama- 
tion has ever been made; or if ever made, the instances so ex- 
ceedingly few and far between, as to have escaped general know- 



16 

ledge. New England, it is well known, is the chosen seat of 
the Abolition presses and the Abolition societies. Here, it is, 
principally, that the former cheer the morning, by full columns of 
lamentations over the fate of human beings, free by nature, and 
by a law above the Constitution; but sent back, nevertheless, 
chained and manacled, to slavery and to stripes. And the latter 
refresh themselves from daily toil, by orgies of the night, 
devoted to the same outpourings of philanthropy ; mingling, 
all the while, their anathemas at what they call "man catching," 
with the most horrid and profane objurgations of the Christian 
Sabbath, and, indeed, of the whole of Divine Revelation. They 
sanctify their philanthropy by irreligion and profanity; they man- 
ifest their charity by contempt of God and his commandments. 

It is well to inquire what foundation there is for all this rhapso- 
dy of opinion, and all this violence in conduct. What, and how 
many, are the instances of the seizure of fugitive slaves which 
these persons have seen, or which have happened in New England 
in their time? And what have been the circumstances of injustice, 
cruelty, and atrocity attending them? To ascertain the truth in 
this respect, I have made diligent inquiry of Members of Congress 
from the six New England States. On a subject so general, I can- 
not be sure, of course, that the information received is entirely 
accurate; and, therefore, I do not say that the statement which I 
am about to present may be relied on as altogether correct; but I 
suppose it cannot be materially erroneous. The result, then, of 
all I can learn is this: No seizure of an alleged fugitive slave has 
ever been made in Maine. No seizure of an alleged fugitive slave 
has ever been made in New Hampshire. No seizure of an alleg- 
ed fugitive slave has ever been made in Vermont. No seizure of 
an alleged fugitive slave has been made in Rhode Island, within 
the last thirty years. No seizure of an alleged fugitive slave is 
known to have been made in Connecticut, except one, about twen- 
ty-five years ago; and in that case the negro was immediately dis- 
charged for want of proof of identity. Some instances of the seizure 
of alleged fugitive slaves are known to have occurred, in this gene- 



17 

ration, in Massachusetts; but, except one, their number and their 
history is uncertain: that one took place in Boston twelve or fifteen 
years ago; and in that case some charitably disposed persons offered 
the owner a sum of money which he regarded as less than half the 
value of the slave, but which he agreed to accept, and the negro was 
discharged. A few cases, I suppose, may have occurred in New 
Bedford, but they attracted little notice, nor, so far as I can learn, 
caused any complaint. Indeed I do not know that there ever was 
more than a single case, or two, arising in that place. Be it re- 
membered, that I am speaking of reclamations of slaves, made by 
their masters under the law of Congress. I am not speaking of 
instances of violent abduction, and kidnapping, made by persons 
not professing to be reclaiming their own slaves. 

If this be a true account, of all that has happened in New Eng- 
land, within the last thirty years, respecting the arrest of fugitive 
slaves, and I believe it substantially is so, what is there to justify 
the passionate appeals, the vehement and empty declamations, the 
wild and fantastic conduct, of both men and women, which have 
so long disturbed, and so much disgraced, the Commonwealth and 
the country? What is there, especially, that should induce public 
men to break loose from all just restraint, fall, themselves, into the 
merest vagaries, and fan, with what they call eloquence, the fires, 
ever ready to kindle, of popular prejudice and popular excitement? 
I suspect all this to be the effect of that wandering and vagrant phi- 
lanthropy, which disturbs and annoys all that is present, in time 
or place, by heating the imagination on subjects distant, remote, 
and uncertain. 

It is admitted, on all hands, that the necessity for any legal pro- 
vision for the reclaiming of fugitive slaves is a misfortune and an 
evil; as it is admitted by nearly all, that slavery itself is a misfor- 
tune and an evil. And there are States in which the evil attending 
these reclamations is practically felt. But where the evil really 
exists, there is, comparatively, little complaint, and no excitement. 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, for example, lie, the one on the Slave 
side of the line, the other on the Free side. Slaves escape from 



IS 

Maryland, flee into Pennsylvania, and are there arrested. These 
instances are not unfrequent, and usually create no disturbance, 
and excite no exasperated feeling. In one instance, indeed, a 
mob assembled to rescue the fugitive, violence ensued, and a life 
was lost. This of course created popular resentment, and for a 
considerable time agitated the neighborhood. But in general the 
people of Pennsylvania understand their neighbor's rights, and are 
willing that they should be secured and enjoyed. Massachusetts 
grows fervid on Pennsylvania wrongs; while Pennsylvania herself 
is not excited by any sense of such wrongs, and complains of no 
injustice. The abolitionists of Massachusetts, both the out-and- 
out and the quasi, rend the welkin with sympathies for Pennsyl- 
vania, while Pennsylvania would quite as willingly be left to her 
own care of herself. Massachusetts tears fall abundantly for 
Pennsylvania sufferings; but which sufferings, Pennsylvania her- 
self knows little or nothing of. No people are more opposed to 
slavery than the people of Pennsylvania. We know, especially, 
that that great and respectable part of her population, the Friends, 
have borne their testimony against it, from the first. Yet they 
create no excitement; they seek not to overthrow or undermine 
the Constitution of their country. They know that firmness, 
steadiness of principle, a just moderation, and unconquerable 
perseverance are the virtues, the practice of which is most likely 
to correct whatever is wrong in the constitution of the social sys- 
tem. No doubt there are sometimes to be found Friends sub- 
ject to the frailty of desiring to become conspicuous, or to the 
influence of a false sentimentality, or borne away into an atmos- 
phere flickering between light and darkness, by the puffs of the 
transcendental philosophy. But that is not a malady of the great 
body. They remain of sound and disposing minds and memories. 
I am misled by authority which ought not to mislead, if it be not 
true, that that great body approves the sentiments to which I have 
given utterance on the floor of the Senate. 

Between Kentucky and Ohio complaints have arisen, occasional- 
ly, on the subject of fugitive slaves; but by no means to the ex- 



19 

tent which has been represented by the Abolition societies. Slave- 
holders in Kentucky complain of the difficulties which they en- 
counter in reclaiming fugitives; and the people of Ohio complain, 
not of the execution of the act of Congress, and reclamations under 
it, but of the conduct of slaveholders, in coming into the State, 
taking and carrying back their slaves by force, and without legal 
process. The State of Ohio has had the discretion not to prohibit 
her officers and magistrates from performing the duties enjoined 
on them by the act of Congress. Such duties they perform when 
occasion requires; yet as they may be prohibited by the legisla- 
ture, and as the Supreme Court has decided that it is in the power 
of Congress to make complete provision, by law, for the whole 
subject, and to give the power of executing such law to offi- 
cers of the United States; and as the prohibitory acts of some of 
the States make an appropriate and suitable law of the United 
States indispensable, such law, if passed, would of course be gen- 
eral, and would comprehend Ohio with other States. 

The act of 1793 gives a right of action to the owner of a fugi- 
tive slave against any person who shall harbor or conceal him. 
Such actions have been brought in Ohio, and I have heard an 
eminent judicial authority say, that he has found no more ob- 
struction to the course of judicial proceedings in these cases than 
in others. Ohio juries try them with as much impartiality and 
calmness as they try other causes. 

Gentlemen, from what I know of the subject, and of the public 
men, and the people of those two States, I fully believe, that if left 
entirely to them a law might be passed, perfectly satisfactory to 
every body, except those whose business is agitation, and whose 
objects are any thing but the promotion of peace, harmony, pa- 
triotic good will, and the love of union among the people of the 
United States. 

And now, gentlemen, does not every sober-minded and pa- 
triotic man see the necessity, and feel the duty, of rebuking that 
spirit of faction and disunion, that spirit of discord and of crimi- 



20 

nation and recrimination, that spirit that loves angry controversy, 
and loves it, most especially, when evils are imaginary and dan- 
gers unreal, which has been so actively employed in doing mis- 
chief, and which, it is to be lamented, has received countenance 
and encouragement in quarters, whence better things were looked 
for? 

We are now near the close of the sixth month of the session 
of Congress. What important measure has been adopted for the 
advancement of the great interests of the country? 

For one, I hardly dare expect any progress in useful legislation, 
until a spirit shall prevail, both in Congress and the country, 
which shall look more to things important and real, and less to 
things ideal and abstract. That there are serious difficulties in 
our present condition, growing out of the acquisition of new ter- 
ritories, is certainly true. These difficulties were foreseen and 
foretold. An honest and earnest effort was made to avoid and 
avert them. They are now upon us. But we can overcome them, 
and still remain a prosperous, happy, and united people, if pru- 
dence and conciliation shall animate our public counsels, and a 
spirit of forbearance, moderation, and harmony spread over the 
land. 

I am, gentlemen, with entire regard, your obliged fellow-citi- 
zen, and obedient servant, 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 
To Hon. Edward S. Rand, 

Hon. W. B. Bannister, 

Rev. Dr. Dana, 

S. W. Marston, Esq., 

And others, signers to the letter of April 8th. 



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